EDMONTON - There are some who believe the Edmonton Oilers are in a race against time — that if they don’t fix the team, the team is going to break its best parts.

The fear is that all of the losing, all the booing and all the years of being second-class citizens in the NHL are crushing the spirit of Edmonton’s best players and slowly teaching them how to be losers.

Should fans be concerned that the elite young talent on Edmonton’s roster, most of which came from winning environments — Taylor Hall won back to back Memorial Cups, Jordan Eberle was a hero for Team Canada, Sam Gagner went 50-14-4 in his final year with the London Knights — are being ruined by the culture of failure in Edmonton?

They are. Or were.

“We’ve definitely addressed that in the lockerroom,” said Eberle, admitting the last few years have been a shock to their system. “It’s something that at the start of the year, and throughout the year, we’ve talked about.